Man Has A Hole Of A Big Problem

Washed-out Spot Is At Center Of Fuss Over Responsibility

The hole in back of his townhouse, he says, measures 6 feet deep and 10 feet across. It has caused Norman a shoulder injury and no end of worries.

"It's just a big mess," he said. "It gets bigger every time it rains. If a kid falls in that thing, it's going to kill him. That's my main concern."

Norman, a 53-year-old resident of Albemarle Drive in the Raleigh Square neighborhood, said he fell in the hole in June when the ground under him caved in. The accident, which injured his shoulder and a fingernail, required the fire department to rescue him.

The hole, which has been growing bigger since April, was created by a break in a storm sewer that runs underneath the property to drain rainwater from the townhouse units.

For Norman, a former bus supervisor at Walsingham Academy, getting the hole fixed is more than a matter of obtaining some peace of mind. He has been out of work since early June and needs to sell his house soon, he says, to help pay bills. Real estate agencies have told him they won't sell his house until the hole is repaired.

"I'm really getting fed up," he said. "I've been trying to sell my house and I can't even market it."

Norman has been trying to get the hole filled since April, but no one is willing to take the blame for his problem. The county says it's the developer's fault. The developer has blamed the county.

Bernard Farmer, the county's director of code compliance, said county studies of the site show the break in the pipe was due to a construction defect by the developer, Joseph Terrell.

Terrell refused to comment on the problem, but Norman said he thinks the pipe separation was due to work done by the county's service authority, which operates James City water and sewer lines.

Two years ago, he said, the service authority dug up the property to repair a water line that broke. In the process, he said, officials had to dig up the storm sewer as well.

Farmer disputes that account, saying, "I have nothing that makes me believe the service authority did anything to that line."

He said the county has told Terrell to repair the line by the end of the month. If he does not, the county will use the bond money pledged by Terrell at the time of the project's approval to insure proper construction.

In the meantime, Norman has waited, keeping an eye out for children crossing the common townhouse property and watching his hole.